I was a thirty years old, single guy at the time. I lived in the mid-west, worked as an engineer for an aerospace company and was on travel in California on business. After putting in a full day's work on Friday, I was not looking forward to the red eye flight home.
Fred, a colleague of mine, approached me. "Why don't you just cancel that flight and join me at a party hosted by one of the company vice-presidents tonight?"
"That sounds great, but I already checked out of my hotel."
"I'll have my secretary get you a new reservation," he replied.
It didn't take much arm-twisting to convince me. His secretary made a couple phone calls to reschedule my flight and make a reservation at a motel.
We worked late that afternoon, then went directly to the VP's house. It was a very elegant estate situated on the waterfront of an ocean inlet.
When I arrived, I was greeted by the vice president, who was very friendly and asked me to call him Art. He told me he was glad I could come and asked me to make myself at home. There were already a dozen people there and Fred introduced me to a few of them including Jim who I already had met at work and his girlfriend Sara. I spoke briefly to Jim and Sara, then got in line for the bar. The bartender was pouring my gin and tonic when I glanced across the room and noticed two very attractive young ladies talking and drinking wine in the far corner. One was blonde dressed in a bright yellow halter style dress with a low scooping front that showed off her cleavage. Her face was pretty and the smile on her face was captivating. Her exposed skin revealed a good suntan. The other was a red head wearing an ankle length white dress cut very low in front and with the skirt unbuttoned most of the way up her thighs. I strolled back to where Jim and Sara were standing and asked him who they were.
"The red head is Art's secretary; Susan and the blonde is the wife of one of the managers in accounting. I believe her name is Barbra."
"Your company president certainly has a good taste in secretaries," I added.
The caterer brought out a plate full of deviled eggs, small sandwiches and cheeses and I got in line right behind the two young ladies.
"I sure love this wine," the blonde was saying. "I wonder what kind it is?"
This was a perfect lead in for me as I was drinking the same wine, had an interest in wine and had looked at the bottle.
"It's Chateau Marmoset, 1989. It's a Bordeau." I volunteered.
"It has a light taste and is very dry, just as I like it," the red head replied.
"This will go really well with the cheddar cheese I see here," I suggested.
The blonde turned to me and asked, "Do you have a wine collection?"
"No, I can't seem to keep the stuff around. I seem to drink it as soon as I buy it. My name is Bill," I said extending my hand.
"Hi, I'm Barbra, but you can call me Barb."
"And I'm Susan," the red-head responded.
We loaded up our plates and the girls invited me to join them at their table. I followed them to where they were sitting.
We got to talking and I volunteered that I was visiting the area and asked them if they knew of a good restaurant in town but something not too fancy.
Barb said that she and her husband had a great lunch at the "Lightning Sports Bar" just down the street.
We started talking about sports. We had several favorite sports in common including tennis, skiing, skin diving and biking.